I would have to say RE4 is Survival horror "lite". it's built on the same foundation as the previous ones, but it definitely turned into a shooter. Leon isn't an ordinary guy anymore, he's a frikkin ninja. In RE2 he was a rookie cop and kind of a putz, in RE4 he works for the president and is a bad ass.
In RE2 I had to pick and choose which enemies to kill because ammo was actually LIMITED, there was no getting more if you've used it all up. It can be found in specific places and after that it's gone. RE4 there is an abundance of ammo. Aside from the first hour or so of gameplay I never had a problem with ammo. If you suck and constantly miss then maybe, but as long as you're shooting enemies you're going to get a constant stream of ammo.
RE4 had atmosphere in the beginning but lost it fairly early into the castle. And it was completely gone by the time you got to the last area of the game. RE2 was the height of atmosphere at the time, and is still pretty creepy. The subtle piano, the camera angles combined with sound effects that you were never sure if it was a monster or just the wind. It was great.
All videogames have survival aspects of it, but not in the survival horror sense. IN survival horror you have to make tough choices about your health, and your items, the routes you chose to take knowing the dangers of each. RE2 you were constantly thinking "this is my last green herb, my health is on low yellow, should I use it now? A licker could kill me in one hit, but a zombie couldn't. Maybe I should wait...but I haven't saved in a while...only one ink ribbon left..." RE4 you "survive" dangerous situations, but you do in Halo as well. The difference is in RE4 you don't have to make any tough choices. I almost always had healing items on hand, plenty of ammo and could save whenever i damned well pleased.
RE4 has elements of survival horror, but toned down alot. It's more of a scary shooter, and RE5 looks to continue that. I wouldn't consider Resistance to be a survival horror game even thought it definately has it's creepy moments.
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